


a necessary thing

by sinspiration



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aftercare, Dom Shiro (Voltron), Dom/sub, M/M, Spanking, Sub Keith (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-25
Packaged: 2020-01-31 18:33:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18597058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinspiration/pseuds/sinspiration
Summary: Keith takes a risk. Shiro reminds him of how important Keith is.





	a necessary thing

**Author's Note:**

> Uh. Yeah. Hi. So! This is a thing that I wrote.
> 
> (Good job Hami for finishing a difficult thing!!)

Keith is one of the strongest people Shiro knows. He’s brilliant and beautiful and over time has only honed his efficiency and capability. He makes Shiro want to be better, do better, and probably will never realize quite how much Shiro treasures on his trust and loyalty, no matter how often Shiro tells him.

But with strength comes stubbornness. Keith and Shiro are alike in that regard. 

They also share a willingness to sacrifice themselves for what they believe to be the greater good.

Shiro has gotten better about it. He has Keith to come home to, to take care of and cherise and protect, just as Keith does all that for him in return. But if it comes down to it, he’ll put himself on the line. Especially where Keith is concerned.

He’s aware that Keith shares this mindset and it would be every sort of hypocritical to begrudge him for it. 

But.

“I knew it would work!” Keith is grinning as he pulls off his helmet. “See? I told you--” His grin falters as he takes in Shiro’s posture and expression.

Shiro hasn’t looked in a mirror lately, but he knows he must be radiating fury. 

Keith hesitates now, pausing where he stands. “Shiro?”

“I expressly forbid that maneuver,” Shiro growls.

Keith bites his lip, clearly not expecting this sort of reaction, which only upsets Shiro more. How could he not-- “Yeah, I know. But it worked, didn’t it?”

Instead of retreating like Shiro had instructed Keith had weaved through the enemy ships and the asteroid field like a dream, banking at the last second to just miss being blown to bits or, like the other ships, smashed to pieces.

It had indeed worked.

But it had been the closest call Keith has had in a long time and it had been for  _ no good reason _ , and Shiro still can’t stop picturing an outcome where it hadn’t worked.

“It was an unnecessary risk and you know that.”

“Shiro, come on--”

He’s not in the mood to listen to Keith trying to convince him that he’d made the right decision. Because Keith hadn’t. He’d risked himself and he hadn’t  _ needed  _ to, like it wouldn’t have mattered if--

If...

Shiro grabs Keith’s wrist and starts walking. “Let’s go.”

“Shiro--” Keith tries again, but he stumbles after Shiro just the same, not trying to pull away. He’s picked up that something is actually wrong; that Shiro is truly angry at what he’d done.

They get to their quarters and Shiro wastes no time shoving Keith inside, door automatically locking behind them as he pulls Keith to the couch. “Do you think my orders are jokes? That I make them without thinking of all the options?”

Keith puffs up a little. “Of course not. But in this case it--”

“You risked yourself when you didn’t have to,” Shiro snarls. “It wasn’t important to destroy those ships. We knew they were unpiloted. We knew they wouldn’t have been a threat if you’d just fallen back.”

“They still would have been around if I had though! To be a problem for another day--”

“I had a plan for that,” Shiro says, voice cold and unyielding. “One that didn’t involve the possibility of you getting hurt.” 

Keith startles, eyes wide, as if the thought hadn’t occurred to him. Because of course it hadn’t, because Keith is constantly underestimating his own self worth, because Keith still somehow doesn’t understand how  _ important _ he is.

Shiro sits down on the couch and uses his Altean arm to grab Keith by the back of the neck and pull him forward. “Suit off and face down over my lap. Now.”

“I--”

_ “Now.” _

He watches Keith swallow and then move to unzip his suit. Shiro squeezes the back of his neck as Keith strips out of it before tentatively climbing onto the couch. He hovers awkwardly for a moment, as if not completely sure what to do.

“Not on hands and knees,” Shiro says. He’s angry; he’s not unkind. “Touching me.”

Keith swallows again and nods, some tension leaving him. He knows he’s done something wrong and that’s he’s being punished for it, but he also trusts Shiro to take care of him even now. 

As always, Keith allowing himself to be vulnerable for him takes Shiro’s breath away. And so Shiro is going to show him just why he won’t stand for Keith’s behavior.

Keith knows what’s coming, so he moves easily into proper position. Shiro can feel him breathing, touching the way they are, see the way Keith shakes just a little. He runs his left hand down Keith’s back, letting it end up resting on the swell of Keith’s ass. Keith’s breath hitches.

“Do you know what you did wrong?”

“I... didn’t listen to you.” It’s not quite the right answer, and from the way Keith almost ends it as a question, Keith knows it too.

Shiro lifts his hand and brings it down, the  _ smack _ loud in the room. Keith jolts against him. “No,” Shiro growls.

“I--” interrupted by the tiniest of whimpers as Shiro brings his hand down again “--I ignored a direct order!” As if the wording changes anything. Sometimes it does.

Not this time. “No.” A third strike. Keith’s skin has already started to redden. It gets redder when Shiro brings his hand down a fourth and fifth time, driven by how Keith is obviously struggling to come up with any other reason for his punishment.

But Keith is brilliant and, if nothing else, he can replay a conversation

“I took a risk!” Keith eventually cries at last. 

Shiro rubs a soothing hand over Keith’s ass, now much warmer to the touch. “And?”

“And I-I didn’t need to.”

“And why is that bad?” Two more strikes. “Why are you being punished?” 

“B-because I worried you.” Shiro squeezes him. Almost there. Keith whimpers and tries, “I risked myself and I didn’t need to and...”

Shiro is calmer now, voice much more even. Almost gentle. “And?”

“And I’m worth more than a risk,” Keith whispers. Echoing something Shiro has told him time and time again.

Shiro strokes his right hand through Keith’s hair. “How many more do you deserve for forgetting that?”  _ For forgetting how much I love you. _

A sharp inhale, because of course Keith can hear those words unsaid. “Ten,” he manages, voice wobbling. Without prompting he shakily adds, “I’ll count.”

He tugs on Keith’s hair so that his face is turned up to see Shiro’s smile. “Good boy.”

The final ten he doesn’t draw out. They are punctuations to end a conversation. Keith is crying by the end of it, his last  _ “I’m sorry” _ a sob as Shiro pulls him into his arms.

Keith clings and Shiro gentles him, petting Keith and peppering him with kisses, praise pouring off his tongue.  _ I love you. You were so good for me. You’re so important, so beautiful, worth so much. _

One last kiss and Shiro pulls back to rest his forehead against Keith’s. “Thank you for listening, baby,” he murmurs. “I know you’ll do better.”

And for every time he forgets, Shiro will remind him.

**Author's Note:**

> Say hi on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/justsayins)? I'm uh. Kind of into sheith right now.


End file.
